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The second most densely populated
independent country in the world, Singapore is made up of not just
one island but a main island with 63 surround islets. This main
island is a diamond-shaped and is connected at its north side to the
Malaysian state of Johor by a man-made causeway, known as the
Johor-Singapore Causeway, which crosses at the Tebrau Straits. The
Tuas Second Link bridge also connects to Johor from the West.

One of Singapore's most outstandingly
unique attributes is its ongoing planning
process, and the results of 6+ decades of such planning. The
locations of communities, working-shopping-eating-entertainment
facilities and infrastructure have been fine-tuned since the design
and creation of Singapore's first “New Town” of Queenstown, from
1952. Prior to that there was a problem of unplanned squatter
settlements and overcrowded shophouses characterized in 1947 as “one
of the world's worst slums” – which was energetically addressed
and eradicated in an attempt to evolve world-leading planning
approaches, and benefits therefrom to the people.

Now, the typical Singaporean lives in a
comfortable self-owned leasehold apartment unit adjacent to
groceries, eateries, other shopping, bus and/or urban rail transport.
Schools, parks and open space, a public sports complex (with
running/jogging track, Olympic and recreational swimming pools,
fitness equipment and other facilities available at nominal cost),
are often within walking distance or a short bus-rail ride of one's
home. If the visitor were to stop at a MRT station like Bedok or
Pasir Ris one could wander through neighbourhoods and see how these
facilities all fit together.

There are actually 55 urban planning
areas that make up the nation state, and today some of this is on
land that has been reclaimed from the sea. Earth obtained from hills,
the seabed and neighboring countries has been used in recent years to
increase Singapore's size by nearly 140 square km in the past 50
years, with perhaps another 100 km2 anticipated by 2030. If so,
Singapore's land area could increase from an original ~580 km2 to an
anticipated ~820 km2, or an increase of ~40%.

The ultra-modern Downtown Core is
primarily concentrated on the southern part of the island, around the
mouth of the Singapore River. This is an area of high-rise office
towers and features some of the finest hotels in the world. However,
increasingly significant business centres are evolving outside of the
Downtown Core, as in Tampines. And industrial and trade facilities
are distributed in another pattern, as around the airport area.

Besides the financial and commercial
centres around downtown (south-central) Singapore, are some
communities which have been considered, often from Singapore's
original planning before 1850, considered to be traditional ethnic
areas. These include “Chinatown”, “Little India”, and Bugis
– Kampong Glam – Geylang Serai (Malay areas). While most of
these were once used to segregate the immigrant population even in
the early 19th century under the policies of Raffles, and
saw many historic landmarks torn down by early efforts of independent
Singapore to modernize, today they are recovering after a somewhat
different fashion as places to experience the goods, food and culture
of Singapore's major ethnic groups. This contrasts with the New
Towns being developed over the past several decades, where the Ethnic
Integration Policy and other related policies set limits on
percentages of housing residents among ethnicities of Singaporeans,
Permanent Residents, and non-Malaysian non-citizens, in order to
promote integration, balance, and the avoidance of culturally biased
ghettos in New Towns.

Chinatown

With an overall population that's about
75% Chinese, many argue that virtually all of Singapore is a
“Chinatown.” This may be compounded by the large numbers of
mainland Chinese contract workers working in sales in shops and
hawker centres – some of whom are effectively non-functional in any
other language (despite Singapore's reputation of being fully
conversant in English). Nevertheless, there is an area bounded
roughly on the NE by the Singapore River, on the SE by the downtown
financial district, on the NW by the Central Expressway, and on the
SW by Outram and Cantonment Roads, that is Chinatown as originally
designated by the plans of Raffles' time.

Many landmark buildings fell under the
wrecking ball in the first decades post-independence, in the drive to
“modernize” Singapore. Such buildings will be forever lost
(unless they might be recreated in the future). Nevertheless, this
area might be considered as being effectively more “Chinese” than
other parts of Singapore. Especially with the policies in place in
New Towns, designed to enhance the integration and demographic
harmony of those areas. And, in the current climate of greater
respect for heritage, many of the remaining buildings have been
restored or enhanced with greater sensitivity than was the case in
the first few decades post-independence.

With 13+% of the overall population of
Singapore, and a rather larger proportion of the populations of
surrounding Malaysia and Indonesia, Malays and a small number of
people of Arab descent form a vital demographic group in Singapore.
One might say that there is an extended influence, as their religion,
Islam, is also the faith of some Singaporeans of Chinese extraction,
and rather more Singaporeans of South Asian ancestry. Traditional
areas with large Malay populations include the Bugis – Kampong
Glam, and the Geylang areas.

These areas may fall in between
Chinatown and Little India in their character. Shopping areas like
Geylang Serai, several residential estates and businesses are in
these areas. Mosques abound. Coffee shops (kopitiam with a small
“k”) which are eateries also serving non-alcoholic drinks
including coffee and tea, bakeries, and other businesses ebb and flow
with patrons throughout the day and evening.

If you want to stay in this general
area, please be aware that, coexisting with residences, coffee shops
and businesses in Geylang, is the city-state's major traditional red
light district – with legal brothels and illegal street walkers
dotted along even-numbered lorongs (lanes) numbered between 2 and 22
– with conditions being fluid over time. Some economy hotels do
dual businesses, with hourly and nightly rates. If you stay in such
a hotel, and discover that your sheets feel like Tyvec – well, you
know... Hostel bed rates can fall below S$40, while budget hotels
start about S$70 and upper crust hotel rooms can exceed S$300.

With the lowest percentage of the three
major constituents in Singapore's population at about 9+%, Indians
generally do not dominate areas of Singapore, other than their
historic enclave of Little India. Little India is also arguably the
smallest of the major ethnic enclaves. It straddles Serangoon Road,
north of Rochor Canal.

Some might argue that Little India is
anchored by the Mustafa Centre complex of shopping, food, and 24/7
foreign exchange. But that a wide diversity of eateries, and small
shops selling everything, servicing mobile phones, etc. also lend
strongly to the character of the area. Temples, mosques, and
churches are in abundance.

During evenings, especially on weekends
late into the night, the area is packed; some might say overrun; by
South Asian contract workers trying to enjoy a bit of time off to
eat, shop, and mill about. Jaywalking (disdainfully in the face of
frustrated drivers) is rampant and essentially unenforced. Some
claim that Little India is a sanitized version of what one would find
in South Asia. That may be true. There are no auto rickshaws
whirling around, for example. Nevertheless, Little India might be
closer to South Asia than Chinatown to mainland China, or the Malay
districts to Jakarta or Kota Bahru. Because the Mustafa Centre is
24/7, some other places in Little India may be open either/both early
or late.

If you want to stay in little India,
you also have a range of options. Hostel beds can run under S$40.
Top class hotel rooms can reach S$200 or above. Even for
Singaporeans from the heartlands, Little India might make a great
staycation spot because of its unique character.

Away from the Downtown district there
are plenty of places to see the other side of Singapore including
Changi Village, which is a sleepy district of fisherman and
sun-drenched beaches. Holland Village, which has been dubbed a
“bohemian enclave” is a curious mix of old and new, where
traditional coffee shops share blocks with upscale wine bars and fine
dining restaurants. Katong has a Peranakan community.

Other areas may be considered as
unofficial gathering places, if not exactly neighbourhoods. For
example, many of the large contingent of Filipina maids gather on
Sundays around the Orchard Road area and Lucky Plaza; while Thai
workers may congregate in places like the Golden Mile Complex; and
Burmese workers congregate near Peninsula Plaza.

Singapore's New
Towns: New Neighbourhoods Singapore Style

90+ years ago,
Singapore was a Straits Settlement along with Malacca, Labuan, and
Prince of Wales{now Penang} Island. The government of the day
recognized a 2-pronged housing problem, characterized (1) by
overcrowded shophouses in built-up areas and (2) by even
lower-quality rural housing in outlying kampongs (village settings).
In 1927 the Singapore Improvement Trust was established to deal with
this challenge. Though the SIT designed and began the pioneering
Tiong Bahru Housing Estate, and Queenstown (Singapore's first
purpose-built New Town), it built only about 23000 housing units
during its 32 year tenure.

In 1960, the SIT was
replaced by the Housing and Development Board. HDB continued the
development of Queenstown. A major fire in one squatter kampong in
1961 effectively ended kampong dwellers' resistance to the housing
policy – and made many residents more favorable to the New Town
concept. Later New Towns have evolved Singapore's style of
increasingly self-contained communities with higher-quality
facilities connected by buses and rail lines, roads and
walkways/cycleways. Singapore's New Towns attempt to address many
issues, including “affordable” housing (though public housing is
no longer cheap), evolving quality standards in line with increased
expectations by the public; nearby
food-shopping-transport-workplaces, schools and recreational
facilities. Nowadays, 80+% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats ranging
from studios to 4+ bedroom units. Most folks “own” their flats,
which were built as 99-year leasehold. Most others live in private
condominiums, mostly (but not all) built to similar 99-year leases.
A few people live in private landed terrace, semi-detached or
single-family houses.

Regular upgradings
go on in established New Towns. For example, early buildings had
lifts stopping at every three floors, with residents walking up or
down to their own floors. Early lifts had a single call button at
each floor – so if one wanted to go from floor 9 to floor 13, one
might wind up riding down to the ground floor (with people already
riding in the lift) before going up, then perhaps walking up or down
stairs before or after the lift ride(s). Subsequent lift upgradings
have been installing lifts which stop at every floor, and have two
call buttons on every floor, as HDB housing moves upmarket.

For those interested
in urban planning, or in imagining what it's like to live in such
communities, one can find a variety of writings on the Web. One can
also take the MRT or a bus to one of these New Towns – and see the
(usually) adjacent food and drygoods shopping near the bus
interchanges and MRT stations, schools, parks, sports/fitness
facilities.

The satellite suburb of Yishun on the
northern coast of the island offers a modern shopping mall to satisfy
even the most die-hard spendthrift. Next to the Tampines MRT
station are several shopping centres, and other office and commercial
buildings in an environment increasingly resembling a satellite city
in its own right.

Pasir Ris, at the far eastern end of
the MRT East-West line, is considered by some to be a “resort-like”
New Town. The MRT station and adjacent bus interchange lie next to
the small-ish regional White Sands Shopping Centre (with its banks,
money changer, renovated food court, basement supermarket and
bakeries, branch library and post office), the Pasir Ris Town Park
with Pasir Ris Sports Complex and somewhat unique fishing pond with
equipment (and fishing time) for hire. Immediately across the street
from the MRT station and bus interchange are Pasir Ris Park, a
national park which runs along the northern shoreline in this area.
Pasir Ris Park has bikes for rent, trails (including some through a
sliver of mangrove forest), places to eat, drink, and camp. There
is also the NTUC Costa Sands Resort – built for workers to enjoy a
few days off along the shoreline – but also open to the general
public; and “The Wild-Wild Wet”, a local water play theme park.
The extensive parklands, the shoreline, cycling paths and other
recreation give Pasir Ris more of a resort feel than, say, Jurong or
next-door Tampines. One can get some of the feel of this
neighbourhood just by taking a train or bus there, and wandering
around (hopefully with a mapping tool or map).

Unfortunately, self-guided tours of
Singaporean neighbourhoods are in somewhat short supply. Perhaps the
best (with an opportunity for anyone to pitch in and improve them)
are the regional articles in Wikivoyage – such as the ones noted
above for Chinatown, Kampong Glam, and Little India.

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